Weekend Watch List: Scorsese And Buscemi Are Here. Playtime Is Over

Published at 10:43 AM EDT on Sep 17, 2010 | Updated at 2:44 PM EDT on May 30, 2012

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Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and weed the fridge. LET’S GO!

BOARDWALK EMPIRE – 10:00PM Sunday (HBO) This is the big one. HBO’s first gangster series since “The Sopranos” went off the air comes from Terence Winter, who was a writer on that show. Let’s hope Winter follows Matthew Weiner’s lead and creates a show that’s full of intrigue while cutting away all the vagueness and purposeful red herrings that old boss David Chase adored torturing audiences with. Your executive producer (and pilot director) is Martin Scorsese, and something tells me that “Boardwalk Empire” will end up resembling the movie “Gangs of New York” really should have been. Steve Buscemi, who is awesome, plays the lead role here, which is a gift all to itself. He plays Nucky Thompson, a bootlegging crime lord in Atlantic City in the early 20th century. Expect plenty of shady doings and perhaps the occasional shooting. This is probably the most anticipated new show on HBO since “Rome.” Probably more so, given its pedigree. ANTICIPATION: BIG!

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS – 9:00PM tonight (Cartoon Network) It’s the season premiere of this animated Star Wars series. I have a four-year-old. I have gone to great lengths to shield her from all Star Wars content that is not the original trilogy. But let me tell you, it’s impossible. Every Star Wars book for kids has cruelly intermingled characters from the original trilogy with characters from the horrid prequels, along with this show. It’s not right. It’s designed to get my kid to like the prequels more than the originals and take more of my money, and it makes me want to punch George Lucas in the beard. NO MORE PREQUEL INTEGRATION! ANTICIPATION: CLONEY!

MAD MEN – 10:00PM Sunday (AMC) I wasn’t wild about last week’s “Mad Men,” in which we found out Don Draper is kind of a terrible writer who likes to swim. But every show is good for a dud episode now and then, and I have a strong feeling we’re about to go on a stretch run of memorable episodes. Also, I’m still waiting for Paul Kinsey to magically reappear. You know it’s gonna happen. ANTICIPATION: SCOTCH!

BILL BURR: LET IT GO – 11:00PM Sunday (Comedy Central) The “Chappelle’s Show” veteran gets another standup special all to himself. He’s very funny, as all bitter ginger kids should be. ANTICIPATION: FUNNYNESS!